1408 (2007)

Redundant and unnecessary.

Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A man who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror. 1408 is a film that play's with viewers minds and believe me it's gonna drive you freaking insane and i mean that as a compliment trust me on that, John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson are amazing in their specific roles and Cusack does sell the craziness pretty good. The movie has alot of great twists as a whole and it's very disappointing that their next film together was meant to be 'Cell' another Stephen King book turned movie and unfortunately not a good one.

If the ending of the movie disappoints you, I highly recommend to watch the ending of the alternate version (Theatrical Release / Director's Cut). It adds a lot to the movie and I personally prefer the ending of the Theatrical Release.

56 deaths have plagued an allegedly evil room on the 14th floor of an older hotel in New York City; writer John Cusack, once an author of fiction but now a specialist in books that debunk supernatural phenomena, is warned by the hotel manager not to check in--first and foremost because he doesn't want to clean up the mess. Well-mounted and made horror freak out, adapted from Stephen King's short story by Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, is literate, polished and solidly enacted by Cusack as the skeptical (and atheist!) room guest. Director Mikael Håfström, despite suffering a case of "Shining"-itis, cannily mixes in sly humor with the shocks, as well as detailed minutiae which viewers might not catch on a first viewing. It should play well with aficionados of the genre, though others may find the ensuing violence assaultive (it bludgeons the audience). Also, the emphasis on assorted grotesqueries is more unpleasant than scary. ** from ****

In this film, a skeptic tries to investigate (and demystify) the story of an allegedly haunted hotel room. The character, played by John Cussack, is quite stubborn and is convinced that the hotel has no ghosts. Less certain of this is the manager, played by Samuel L. Jackson, who does everything to demoralize the investigator, trying to protect his hotel from that ill-famed room, which remains closed and inaccessible. The two actors work well together and do a good job, especially if we consider that they are more accustomed to working on action films. But the great actor in the movie is the room itself. We never see an entity. In fact, the film is not clear about the existence of a ghost. We see, instead, a man in crisis, struggling with remorse of varied origin, with weights in consciousness. The isolation of the room confronts the investigator Enslin with all these ghosts which, in fact, may be no more than the ghosts of his own past. This is the beauty of this film, deeply psychological: sometimes the ghosts of our lives are the ones that can destroy us if we confront them. The film, however, commits the terrible sin of exaggeration, especially from the final third. It seems that director Mikael Håfström was fascinated by the possibilities of special effects, deciding to deeply distort the room in the strangest ways, trying to fit this into the film and making it a little intractable, taking the focus away from the psychological depth thought out in the script. Special effects, no matter how well done they may be, have their time and should be served to the public in the right measure.